Meaning & Origins

(French) feminine diminutive of Charles, used in England since the 17th century. It was particulary popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, in part due to the influence of firstly Queen Charlotte (1744–1818), wife of George III, and secondly the novelist Charlotte Brontë (1816–55); it has again come to prominence since the 1980s, especially in England and Australia.